Crean about season opener: ‘My stomach knew it was a real game’

Tom Crean’s stomach was rumbling.

He’d coached in plenty of big games during his nine years at Marquette and had already led the Hoosiers to two home victories in the exhibition season, but the coach’s insides were tossing and turning before Saturday’s game.

“I feel that way all the time,” he said of pre-game butterflies.

    SLIDESHOW: IU vs. Northwestern State

Maybe he’d guzzled one too many Diet Cokes. Or maybe IU’s first-year coach was feeling the pressure.

He was set to make his debut as IU’s 28th men’s basketball coach and lead his young team against a Division I school for the first time.

“My stomach knew it was a real game,” Crean said after his team beat Northwestern State, 83-65. “It didn’t know it the last two, I guess, but it knew today.”

After the game, Crean’s stomach relaxed.

“We’re not going to get shut out this season,” he said with a smile.

He opened his press conference by noting his players will “never forget their first win as part of the Indiana basketball family inside Assembly Hall.” Then he added, “Never forget it, none of us will ever forget.”

If the pressure of his first game wasn’t enough, Crean had several numbers adding pounds to the monkey on his back. The Hoosiers had won 23 straight season openers at home in a row and 10 straight season openers. In addition, the program’s last eight head coaches had all won in their debuts.

Crean extended all the records.

After the game, for the third time in a little more than a week, the IU coach went over to the Assembly Hall student section to thank the fans. Although it was not a sellout – the announced attendance was 13,446 – the fans who were there heckled the opposition for most of the night, focusing most of their attention on 5-foot-9 Demon guard Michael McConathy, who they nicknamed “Hobbit.”

Freshman guard Verdell Jones said the home crowd “gave us a lot of energy,” but Crean, who has sat on the away team’s bench for a couple of games as an assistant coach at Michigan State, said he was just happy to be on his side of the court.

“It’s just so awesome to walk out and see that crowd,” he said. “To be on the home-team bench, I guess it’s hitting me; I guess it hasn’t totally hit me yet. But to be on that side and know they are cheering for the team I’m actually standing there with – that’s a good feeling.

“Because it’s an intimidating presence when you’re down on the other end.”

The guy on the other end, Northwestern State coach Mike McConathy, father of Michael McConathy and fellow Demon guard Logan McConathy, praised Crean after the game for his team’s effort.

“A lot of times, we go around the country, sometimes I feel like we’re the Barnum & Bailey Circus,” he said, drawing a laugh. “But a lot of times, you don’t see the big time programs play as hard as they played tonight. ... And that’s a credit to the staff Coach Crean has assembled here.”